Nonprofit shooting ranges across the state are invited to apply for part of $80,000 set aside annually for cost-share grants to improve their facilities.

Run by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the grants are funded through the federal Wildlife Restoration Act, by a federal excise tax on hunting equipment that is distributed to states based on the number of licensed hunters.

Grants are available for shooting ranges that maintain a nonprofit status and provide access to the general public and hunter-education classes.

Projects eligible for reimbursement include backstops, berms, target holders, benches, baffles, protective fencing, signs, lighting, field courses, platforms, roads, parking areas, sanitary facilities, storage rooms, shelter buildings and classrooms. All range construction must be on land owned by the applicant or controlled by the applicant through a use permit, lease or easement that ensures use for a minimum of 10 years.

Last year's grants were used to help Douglas Ridge Rifle Club in Eagle Creek purchase a portable classroom and for Siuslaw Rod and Gun Club in Florence to purchase and install a covered building near the firing line.

Decisions on which projects to fund are made by the Shooting Range Development Advisory Committee.

Deadline to apply is the end of the business day on March 17. The application can be found online at www.dfw.state.or.us/education/hunter/range_development.asp

For information, contact James Reed at 503-947-6016 or James.D.Reed@state.or.us.

A public advisory committee will meet Saturday in Salem to review antlerless success among archery hunters and tag structures for deer and elk hunts as part of an overview of bowhunting in Oregon.

Saturday's meeting marks the second for the Archery Review Public Advisory Committee. It will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the ODFW headquarters, 4034 Fairview Industrial Drive SE.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting, which will include a public-comment period.

Others can send comments about archery and its rules to ODFW.comments@state.or.us.

By the end of spring, the committee may recommend changes in archery seasons to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. Proposed changes, if any, would go out for public comment. Any changes would not begin until 2015.